Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go to make up our world or universe.  It is an exceedingly general term.  I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs, and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a ribbon worthy of a queen.  Is Nature and environment only a huge divine loom to weave man and something higher yet?  One great difference is evident.  Under normal conditions the silk must become a ribbon.  But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.  Environment is a very hard word to define, and our views concerning it may differ.

One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident.  If each successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on account of its conformity to environment there must be some element or power, something or somewhat in environment specially corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it survives.  The forces and elements of environment make and work against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for those who follow it.  And thus natural selection arises as the total result of the combined working of all these forces.  They all unite in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection is the effect of this resultant.  In the stage represented by hydra the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.  But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a new position in respect to these forces.  New elements in the old environment are beginning to press upon him.  And the resultant changes accordingly.  He may be compared to a steamer at sea which raises a sail.  The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail gives it a new hold on the ship.  Steam and wind now combine in a new resultant of forces.  From worms upward environment manifests itself through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and brute strength or activity.

But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute force.  After a time environment proves to be a power making for shrewdness.  And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and when man has appeared environment proves to be a “power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.”  But what shall we say of an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness?  Someone may answer it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very high ends.  That is very true, but is it the whole truth?  The thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?

We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?  Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual?  Shall we best call environment, in its highest manifestation, “it” or “him?”